Good thing I brought my glasses today. What's that for? Oh, really? We're all having so nice. We'll go session after all at the end. Yes, we're going to How you doing? All right. Oh my gosh.
It's not doing Oh no. What happened? It's cuz I'm on the low energy mode. Oh no. Is it my It says I'm on Well, it says SOS, so I'm not. Yeah.
I walked right into that. So Oh, look at that. It works good. So, we're doing we're doing so much. All right, we're good. All right, I'm ready. You guys ready? Ready. I call this meeting to order.
Could we all rise for the flag salute? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And if we
all remain standing for a moment of reflection for all those in harm's way and all our military uh at home and abroad and thank [Applause] you.
Okay. Statement of advanced notice. The notice requirements of the open public meetings act of the state of New Jersey have been satisfied by the inclusion of the date, time, and place of this meeting in the notice of regular meetings adopted by this board on January 6th, 2005.
Such schedule and notice of meetings is posted at the municipal building, the Mount Olive Library, the board of education offices in the six schools was submitted to the daily record for publication on January 7th, 2025 and was filed with the clerk of Mount Olive
Township on January 8th, 2025. I direct that this announcement be entered into the uh minutes of this meeting. And can we take a roll call, please? Mrs. Aquino here. Mrs. Fenton, here. Mrs. Faggera, Mrs. Mrs. Fitzgerald, Dr. Gardano here,
Mrs. Melendez here, Mrs. Narcissis here, Mrs. O'Neal here, Mr. Orzillo here, and we are going to actually rearrange the order of our meeting and we are actually going to move our reports and discussions um to the top. So, student
liaison, you're up first. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening. My name is Nor Risk and I'm the Mount Olive High School board of ed leaison. My name is Jake Cawthorne. I am the student council secretary. So for old business, starting
off on March 26th, the student council brought back Clash of Classes for the first time in quite a while. And it was a big su big success, especially considering it was the first time bringing it back since before the pandemic. The next day, March 27th, the Mount Olive High School hosted its
futures fair featuring colleges, vendors, and employers for students in our special needs program. Over the weekend of March 29th and 30th, HOSA attended their state leadership conference. On April 2nd, the Morris County Schoolboard Association held a meeting at Morris Nolles to honor
special unsung heroes. Mount Olive was proudly represented by Gian Alfano. During the week of April 1st through the 4th, senior prom tickets were sold. Meanwhile, over the weekend, April 3rd to the 5th, the Mount High School Drama Club performed Greece and completely sold out the pack, the first
time the entire theater had sold out in 12 years. The drama club had traveled to Bucks County Playhouse and earned several awards for both Greece and prom. On April 5th, the high school hosted the elementary school science fair featuring over 100 contestants. On April 8th,
seniors held their community health advocacy night and then the inter the international extravaganza took place on April 11th with 15 different cultural performances and an amazing turnout. The Air Force Junior ROC hosted their Raider Challenge on April 12th, finishing
second place overall. They also held their annual reward ceremony on April 16th. Finally, the Mount Olive High School Key Club hosted its annual community Easter egg icon. Moving on to our new business. Tomorrow at 6 PM, the National English Honor Society will be
hosting its annual poetry night where all the members will come and share their favorite poetry. The next day on April 30th, we are going to have our Mount Olive High School Cares Fair, which is a way for the community to come see all the different clubs and learn more about our community. On April 30th,
as well, the Mount Olive Jazz Club will be having their last concert of the year, 6:30 in the pack. And then starting May 1st, the NJSLA ELA 9 and Science 11 will have their testing. On May 1st, the National Honor Society will
have their induction ceremony for the 2025 2026 school year. And then on May 5th, our AP exams will begin and Mount Olive High School will be giving 94 exams out to students. The same day, May 5th, we'll have the Share the Keys program for the
upcoming seniors. Share the Keys is basically a way for upcoming seniors to learn more about road rules and safety before they are eligible for a parking spot. May 6th will be the Thespian Honor Society induction for the 2025 2026 school year. And then on May 7th, we
will be hosting the Morris County School Boards Association where they give out scholarships and awards to students. On May 8th, the anatomy classes will be taking a trip to Ruckers University for a cadaavver lab. And on May 15th, Mount Olive will also be hosting a career fair
for future students. May 16th, the Rock and Roll Academy will have their last concert of the year. They're really great, so make sure to go show up. And then May 17th, the Air Force Junior ROC program will be having their military ball at the mansion. May 19th, our
orchestra will be having their spring concert. And then on May 20th, we will be having our NJSLA math portion testing of the year. And then May 20th, the World Language Honor Society will be having their induction ceremony for the 2025 2026 school year. May 21st, our
band will have their concert. And then lastly for May, May 22nd will be the senior prom at Meadow Metalwood Manor. Thank you. Any questions? Any questions from the board? I have a question. You can't go to prom.
Sorry. How many days till the end of the school year? I think there's like 30 something. I think it's 28. That's a lot to fit in. 30 33. Real short. Okay. A lot of information packed. I figured by now somebody's
counting. Like four Mondays left. Five Mondays. Oh my god. I don't even say that. Um, anything else? Anyone else for the board? No. Thank you so much. We don't see you before. Enjoy prom.
[Music] And with that, we will move to superintendence report. Good evening. We have a jam-packed superintendent report. All exciting good stuff. Um but we're
going to say we're going to do the best first. So, I'm going to invite Miss Colleen Sule um to the podium and we're tonight we're going to be honoring our champion gymnastics team. Woo. Good evening everybody and thank you again for the opportunity to come up
to the board of education and honor our student athletes. Um we've been here once already this year to celebrate this incredible group of young women with fantastic coaches and we are here today to give them a gift on behalf of the board of education for their incredible
successes. One of the things that I think is really important to remember in the sporting world is um that these girls were threetime league champs, threetime state sectional champs
and state champs. And the difference between their state championship compared to other programs is that whether you were in a enrollment of a 400 student school or a 4,000 group school, they competed
against everybody. So, it's every single gymnastics program in the state of New Jersey who competed for this championship and Mount Olive took it home. So, we are super proud of them and all of their efforts. want to say a uh special thank you to
our parents for their advocacy and their diligence in providing their daughters with an incredible experience. So, thank you so much to the parents. Say a special thank you to our coaches. Without your vision, your effort, and your commitment to these young athletes, they would not be as successful as they
are today. And of course, a special thank you to the board of education for your ongoing support of their of their mission. So, thank you very much. I wanted to uh we kind of put him on the spot a little bit here, but I'm going to ask the two captains to come up. Megan,
who is very upset we asked her to come up and Natalie. So, come on up. They're going to do a quick thank you and along with their coaches Hamilton and Nightheart. Here you go. You're welcome.
Um, so we'd like to thank the board of education and the school administrators and the entire Mount Olive community for supporting our team from coming to our homies to cheer us on to the firetruck escorts after our championship wins to now giving us these beautiful state
championship rings to reme to always remember our incredible season. We couldn't have done this without you. Thank you from the entire team. I personally just want to give a quick thanks to all of the board members. We appreciate your support and recognition
and these girls wouldn't have been able to get these championship rings without your support. Um they've worked very hard with it for this moment. Um we are eight years in our program. So we're still even a fairly new program. So the
fact that we are on top this season was amazing. Um the program is constantly changing um and these athletes are evolving um both academically and athletically. Unfortunately, we have a few seniors that we're sad to see um to go to onto college. We have a bunch of
athletes that are continuing in the acro and tumbling program in college, which is super exciting that um gymnastics will continue for some of our Mount Olive athletes. Um but we do want to thank everyone. Um Colleen, thank you very much for your support. Dr. Bania,
all of the board members. Um, I'm the only one that's seen the rings, so the girls haven't seen them, so I'm super excited for them to actually see them. Um, and congratulations to all of you. We are so very, very proud of each of you.
[Applause] Do you want your names on the box? Yeah, the name's on the box. Just get the box. Sure. Actually, you guys can Okay. No specific order. Kelsey Cow.
You're not allowed to open them till you all see them together. I should stay up there. Yeah. Make sure you Is that what you just Lily Lejuski. [Applause] [Music] Congrats. Lily
Natalie Watson, our captain this [Music] year. Congrats, Ella Freriedman. If you give [Applause] me up next, we have Chloe DTO.
[Applause] Uh, our other captain this year, Megan Rous, [Applause] [Music] not here today, but going to recognize Rebecca
Scott, Jasmine Tongle, [Applause] our statician who's not here today as well, Llaya [Applause]
Sterling, Kelly [Applause] Heights, Charlotte Leonard, [Applause] Carly
[Applause] Faric Avery [Applause] Schroeder, Lexi Zybeck, and last but not least,
Amy Ruben singing. Congrats. Congrats. Thank you very much. All right, ladies. Are we ready for your reveal? They're in a box. In a box. Let's go. State champions.
NJSIA New Jersey state champions. Mount Olive Gymnastics, you may open your rings. [Applause] Yeah, we I haven't seen them yet.
Oh my god, I want to see it. I need to see. Oh, they're so pretty. Beautiful. [Music] See the box lights up?
It's pretty cool. Nothing. So, you told No, we just sold nothing. It's like Vegas. I know. It looks awesome. I love the light on the box. Yeah, you got it. You got to do a hand shot. Yeah. Yeah. Get one of them. They
deserve it. [Music] I don't want to eat my No, I know. Yeah, I know. assembly Bless your [Applause] [Music] co. Almost almost 5,000.
People don't care. Really nice. Really nice. Really nice. Nice job. Well done. Well done. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Good job. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations.
Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. So sweet. [Laughter]
All right. Well, we still have them here. Board members, does anybody have any comments or um anything they'd like to share with the gymnastics uh team? Me. Hey, girls. Girls. Hi, girls. Hello. Oh, they're
taking pretty Are you taking Tik Toks? Are there any comments that uh from the board? Yes. Oh, I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of you guys and your perseverance throughout the years have been astounding and this is this is the
results of that and I like I'm just amazed and I'm really proud of you and I want to congratulate you and the coaches and Miss Sule and all the parents because you guys should be so honored and feel so good about this accomplishment and I just I'm so proud
of you guys. here. Here you speak for all of us, Lisa. Yes. Anyone else from the board? [Applause] Okay, we will if if you uh students would like to stay. We are going to be in our public budget presentation, but
I'll give you a minute if you'd like to exit because you know can I understand and our liaison you're welcome to depart. Wouldn't you like to stay? All right. for the fun. I'm going to just sit. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
you everybody. Have a good night. That's my And next up is the fun. Watch it. I think we should get like board of our team board. We get board
certification. Oh, there you go. So, at this time, um, I'm going to turn it over to Hello, Dr. Bio is speaking. I'm going to turn it over to Miss, um, Shony. She is going to be reviewing our
upcoming school budget. [Music] I can't believe everybody left. This is like the best is yours, Miss Shaing. Don't get nervous. We'll get nervous. Okay, good evening everybody. Tonight is
our is the hearing on the budget for the 2526 school year. So the presentation is is broken down among seven areas. Who was Mount Olive? responsible budgeting, budget highlights, state aid, revenues and
expenditures, the tax loving impact, and any questions anybody may have. So, this slide is a history of the resident enrollment in the district. This is um an annual count on October 15th every year called the application
for state school aid. This number represents the total number of students on roll on October 15th of each year. Uh the the enrollment for October 2025 is projected based on what we're
anticipating in the district um the end of August. Just as an aside, this is um on the Division of Finance website, the taxpayers guide to educational spending.
The hyperlink is here um that you can look at your leisure when you have nothing else better to do. Um but the state takes into consideration 21 cost indicators which is um an annual
publication that gathers all the financial data that the school districts import from their annual audits actual expenditures adjusted budget and future expenditures. So, for the taxpayers guide for
2024, when you click on this link, can I actually do this from here? I don't think I can. Joe, could you click onto that um one hyperlink there? There you go. So, when you click on this link, this is where you're brought and to the right where it says 2024
um zipped files. You don't have to click on there. that has all the 21 cost indicators and it's all organized by county and then by school district so anybody can look at these files and see where their school district um lays in
that area. Missing um could you explain to the public as to how these schools are grouped and when you start to look at the um if they want to start looking at the actual file are they organized by size? The districts are organized by their grade level, whether it's K6, K8,
um K through 12, and then it goes by the size of the district up to about 600 students up to 1,200 and then um goes up to 1,800 and then over 3,500 plus, which is where Mount Olive stands. Joe, would
you mind going back to the other? Thank you. So just just briefly gathering some data from this guide, you will see here um the columns are the 2122 actual amounts
and where the the groups rank within the district. So, for example, Mount Olive um is a K12 district over 3,500 students and there are 96 districts that fit in this data. So, when when you're looking
at this data, you will see, for example, total classroom instruction for and we'll go toward uh the 2324 school year. The district is spending $11,938 per pupil. And out of
96 districts, and this is statewide, this isn't applicable to the county. This is in the entire state of New Jersey, all counties, Mount Olive is 58 out of 96. So 96 being the highest um spending, correct?
Um moving down from that, total support services 78 out of 96. Total administrative costs were 76 out of 96. And in the administrative cost item, there are three areas, four areas. There
is the principal's office and all costs assigned for that. There is the superintendent's office, there is the business office, and there is the technology administrative office. So all of those costs are deemed
administrative. After that we have total operation of maintenance and plant. This is our custodial our maintenance everything for the facilities. Mount Olive is 81 out of 96. Uh extracurricular costs we're 94 out of
96. So do you want to So one of the things that we wanted to point out is out of those 96 schools we are the third highest spending on where it counts which is ensuring our students have great opportunities and certainly the presentation before this one certainly
is a testament to the dedication of the school district of ensuring that um learning does not only happen in the classroom that it really extends to so many different facets and certainly that's seen through all the um you know accolades our students have achieved you know whether it be in ROC, whether it be
in our honor society, on the field, off the field, on the stage. Um, so certainly we are very proud of that number that we represent um across that state. And I can I mention that too, Dr. Benjamin, because I did want to comment. I I can wait till the end, but since you brought it up there, I think it's I think it's exactly what you said. And
also goes to show our community the problems quote unquote that we're having with space for our for all these because we do want to provide our students with a lot of opportunities to dip their toes in the water to find out to find themselves to see what they like what they don't like and to move forward and we're always open like gymnastics is a
perfect example. They came less than you know eight years ago said they wanted to start a gymnastics program. The board got on board and just and it took off from there. So I I do want to say even though it's high it's really in my opinion is one of the places where it counts. So, great job for everybody, you and previous superintendents and boards of eds.
And last but not least, legal costs where Mount Olive uh rank 67 out of 96. So, um obviously the higher the ranking, the more the district spends on each one of those cost areas.
A shout out to Mr. Stanbury for that, too. I would be remiss not saying if he didn't have his his proverbial hand in that pot of making sure our kids had opportunities. Thank you. So I I think people have heard about the the userfriendly budget which is posted to the district's website. Joe, can you
click on that hyperlink? So if you go to the Mount Olive website, you will find the userfriendly budget posted under What happened to my link? Under budget and financial. And if you scroll down a little
bit, you'll see budget And if you click on budget, you'll see the user-friendly budget for the 2526 year and then all the ones prior. So this is um if you saw in the paper the
advertised budget, this is what you will see in the newspaper and this is for your viewing pleasure on the website as well. Can you go? So this this document here these are the advertised per pupil cost
calculations and they go from uh 2220 they start with 2223 actual costs are 2324 actual costs our current year original budget and our revised budget and our proposed budget
for next year. So you can see the differences there. Um and this is in the same format from the prior slide with the cost indicators. This is um just taking more data from that document and comparing um
last year the data with the propo excuse me with their proposed budget. So based on those cost indicators for classroom instruction their proposed budget is increasing by $55 a student. Our support
ser services is increasing by 312. Our total administrative costs are flat. Our operations and maintenance of plant uh decreased by $28. And that's basically because in the
2425 budget, we had we have specific projects that are one-time cost indicators and they're not going to benefit future years. So that's why the cost went down a little bit. our total extracurricular costs down by $5 and our
legal costs are down by $2 in the proposed budget. Some big savings there. So, just some just some quick facts on how Mount Olive is responsible in their budgeting. Little brain. So obviously revenues have
to equal expenditures and it's very hard to do when we can only increase our tax levy by 2%. Uh right now as was proposed in our original budget and for tonight the tax levy has an increase of
3.88% with allowable adjustments. For this year we're using a healthc care adjustment of $1.4 million. The district qualified for 1.8 8, but we did not have to use that entire amount. So, the district has decided to save that
difference and it will be put to future use, which is called cap banking eligibility. Because the district did not raise their tax levy to their absolute cap, the amount that's underneath cap, you're allowed to bank it for future use. Our state aid, as we
discussed, was reduced by $340,000. And we can use fund balance from our savings that the district does every year to save for the future. So for expenditures, we had to do need
versus want. Do you really need this or do you want it? So we had um our administrators and budget developers come up with a list of the needs versus the wants. And of course we have our fixed costs. Nothing increases by 2%.
Salaries are over 3%. Medical and dental 12%. Just salaries and benefits make up about 80% of our budget. Utilities projected increase of 15%. Um we have tuition contracts with other local and
private districts. We have um our contracts with Mars County School of Technology for our vocational programs and our academy programs and our special education um private schools. Those have those are
all over 3%. And then we have statemandated unfunded cost like our our pension obligation which in this budget is $181,000 increase. And just to be clear, and I wanted to make it bigger, but I couldn't fit it.
The district has not cut any programs or services. We still maintain uh a small class size to ensure um quality instruction and services for all of our students. You're here.
This is just a fact sheet. This is a document taken off of our budget submission and the first highlighted I can't read it so I'm sure you can't read it. The increase in healthare cost the the line don't show off now with your
young eyes. Um the increase in health care cost is the $1.8 million that we qualified. Um, and line F says the tax levy cap, which is the maximum amount we could have increased our tax levy. And
if we did, that increase, I believe, was about 4.34% at the time, but we did not want to go that high. So, our tax levy on line G is $81,300,000. And on the way bottom, it
says banked cap available for 2627. So, the district has generated over the past couple of years almost $1.1 million in savings that we can put forth for next year. Budget highlights. We're in year
three of our technology plan. Uh we're replacing all end of life Chromebooks, laptops, desktops, purchase of Prometheium boards. Um the we were able to purchase a lot of the items out of 20
uh out of 2526 in the current year because of available funds. We had the same situation with the year before with just just saving and shopping for the best possible prices. We were available
to save next year's budget and pay it out of this year. facilities and capital, which I'll show on a separate slide, is a little over $4 million. Transportation within our capital budget, we are uh putting in a
new facility for the staff. All of our salaries includes all proper contractual uh negotiated contracts, increases, and we have new positions all across the district. Capital projects. This is just
about the same document that I presented at the preliminary budget. There are a few items that are highlighted in red because the dollar amounts changed, not the actual project. Um, mainly the the boiler project at the
high school went up a little bit because we were um ascertaining more quotes and trying to be more close to the vest, which we were able to. the direct we have two direct install projects on the horizon. One at the high school and one
at Sandshore. And in the preliminary budget, we were going to pay off each project in full. But due to other items that needed more attention, we decided to put in um the the annual amount which
if you remember when we passed these resolutions, these were at 0% interest to be paid over 5 years. So the district is not incurring any uh additional funds um interest costs by reducing it. It's it's zero interest to the district.
Um, the modular office went up by about $21,000 after we were reviewing our costs and the PA system at the middle school. The original budget was $200,000. You'll see it's increased to
$550. And that's because the system in this building is well over 20 years old. And uh we've had two vendors come out now to do a thorough in a thorough inspection on it. And and it requires
all new wiring um all new all new a brand new system and that of course is paramount for the safety and security of our students. Quick question is showing on the Mount Olive boiler. It says direct install project. I assume that's HVAC. Yes. Yes. Okay. I just want to
make sure only because you had it on sand. I just want to make sure everyone understands that we just left off HVAC. That's all. Yep. Oh, yes. Thank you. That's all. No problem. You mean at the high school? Yeah, at the high school. Yep. Personnel related. This was a slide from our preliminary budget. We are including 13 new
positions. And certainly, as we pointed out during the preliminary budget, you know, a lot of it really goes back to the students. That was really we wanted to focus upon. So, a lot of them deal with our maintaining our academic excellence initiative in which we are um hiring a full-time G&T teacher at the elementary um schools, which is
exciting. We're um adding to our multilingual staff also at the elementary as well as introducing an entire new team for sixth grade to ensure the transition into the middle school from the elementary which we know is such a um strategic time for our students as well as hiring an English
teacher at the high school as well as an in-class resource teacher as well. Another part of our um instruction for our students is also dealing with their student well-being and development. This is where we're hire hiring additional social worker as well as an interventionist at CMS as well as a
number of special ed related um roles including a new um ASD classroom over at SanUR requires a teacher as well as additional aids and ABA therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists and a new child study team member. So certainly when we look at it,
we're really ensuring that we support both the academic, social, emotional, and also development needs of our students across this district. I'll I'll keep talking. Um certainly, as we pointed out in our preliminary budget, we also um pay a lot of attention to our curriculum work. We
are looking at um revamping our ELA curriculum from a KD8 perspective as well as looking both our math instruction and curriculum at both the elementary and middle school with continued professional development through conquer math that it's going to be extended into g grades K through
three. Currently is um starting at grade four all the way through the high school as well as new resources for our multilingual students as well as more targeted um instruction for our staff which is really critical. We recognize that staff have different needs. You know, developmentally is where they are
in their career as well as with the role that they play in the district. So, we really want to ensure that the um PD provided to them is what they need. This slide is an 11-year history of state aid. I had this in our presentation from last year, so I just
increased it another year. You can see um the history of our state aid. And for this year, uh, obviously last year we had $5.1 million increase and this current year we had a reduction of
$340,000, which as we discussed earlier uh at our preliminary meeting when we were first developing the budget, we had guidance that we should plan for a 3% reduction in state aid, which was about $1.1 million. So, we were quite ecstatic
when we only had a $340,000 reduction because we did not want to cut anything out of this budget. So, the these are the top five districts that I had this last year when we received a little over $5 million. We
were looking at um the districts in Mount Olive just for a comparative purpose. So you can see the five districts of what they received in 2425 in comparison to 2526. You could see there's really no
correlation at all. And on next slide I'll we'll talk about state aid. Um on this hyperlink here if you click on that link um this is you'll see here this brings you to school finance. This takes you to
uh the total state aid for 2526 by um you have it by total by county. You have it by school district. So you can look at any district in the state of what they received in state aid. Again, if you have nothing better
to do and want to look at that, have at it. Okay. Um thanks Joe. So this is analysis of state aid. Th this presentation will be up on the website. I know um it's kind of difficult to look at.
Um I did change the the data anyway. I think we keep if we don't go over they still haven't it. Um but basically what what drove what drove our state aid last year and this year is
what's called equalization aid. And equalization aid is based upon the average upon the wealth of the school district. The town um the state takes uh the tax returns of the citizens in in the district and that's what they
compare it to uh the the more wealthy a district is is deemed the less equalization aid they receive. So on this spreadsheet that I'm sorry you can't see. I'll make sure it's accessible and I'll try to put it on the
presentation so you can look at it. Our equalization aid um went down last year um our valuations of the district income had increased over 8% and this year it decreased by 4%. And part of that reason
is the state took three years of property values and income um years of 2022, 23 and 24. They took those three years and they averaged them and overall Mount Olive saw uh a slight district in
their equalization aid um of about roughly 6%. But at the same token, our what they deem as categorical aids, which is our transportation aid, our special education aid, and our security aid, all went up quite a bit. Um, and
then what happens is when they take the difference and they deem what the local fair share is of the district, that's how your state aid is calculated. I'm not going to go through this. These are these are all of our
general fund revenues starting with our audited numbers from 2324, our revised budget for current year and what our proposed budget is. And you'll see the difference overall um our general fund revenues have an
overall increase of about8%. Um toward the bottom I'll just emphasize the fund balance which is the district savings that the district uses to put forth for next year. So we are
withdrawing funds from capital reserve from our maintenance reserve and from our fund balance from our audit and then also from our current year budget to put forth to save as a revenue support for
next year. Our expenditures um overall have gone up by.78% which is a testament to um the team really scrubbing the numbers and really budgeting and averaging the needs
versus wants. Continuing our expenditures, special revenue, our grants, our local, federal, and state grants. Um, you will see there's quite a difference between our revised budget and our proposed budget. And that's
because the directive we had received was to budget about 75% of your current year allocation. Um, so that's what we did. We're hoping to be fully funded as is every other district, but you know, we
need to be conservative and those items that we usually spend in our special revenue budget, we had to include it in our general fund because we could not cut those programs and services. Um, these federal projects have been in
Mount Olive and statewide for many, many years. So, uh, districts really rely on these funds. Debt service, uh, you will see that debt service has gone down. It's because our debt is falling off. One of our bonds is falling off this year. So,
you will see see a slight decrease in that. And um just showing an average uh the past 3-year tax levy 2324 the tax levy was uh a little bit under 6%. Last year
with that $5 million flux in state aid we raised the tax levy um only 27 over the allowable amount and for current year excuse me we're raising it 3.88%. Quick calculation I won't go
through it. Um you can see of how the tax levy is calculated and this is um you know how much is this going to cost the taxpayer. The district had um new commercial properties enter into the district. So
you'll see that the net valuations increased by um 5% which fortunately um decrease the tax uh the tax rate. So, when you um apply the tax rate to the average assessed home, which in Mount
Olive is $325,000, I have the first column as the current tax rate and what is proposed. And you'll see the annual increase or decrease and same for per month. So you'll see that on an average home of
$325,000, taxes are going down $160 [Music] annually. Any questions? If um again this will be posted to our website and if you have
any further questions or new questions please feel free to email me and I'll be happy to discuss since I do this all the time. Do we have any questions from the board? Dr. Dana, I would just like to thank you uh Miss Miching and Dr. Bania. Like I said the last time, this is not
easy to do. Uh it's very little of it's understood by John Q public. Um even so a little bit you've been on the board for as long as I have been and you know you still you learn something new every budget presentation and what changes at the state and that's where your expertise comes in. So excellent job. Um
once again thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um Miss Shing just before we go or Dr. Bania finish up the budget piece of it. Can you just explain I know on here the number looks large but the purpose and the real importance of the
public address system for the middle school. Um I think there's definitely like a mis uh perception of what that you know the the purpose of it or the use of it. It's more than just the speakers. So there's definitely a major security purpose for that right across the board. Certainly that's how we
communicate throughout the building. So if that system is not properly working, we can't get a hold of certain classrooms, certain locations, and certainly because the the platform is original to the building. Yeah. Um it required a a total overhaul. We had
anticipated perhaps that we can save the wiring and the you know the background of things. However, when we start to get into more of our um quotes received that we wanted to do it right. you know, as as you know, as a district, you know, we're the safest in the county and we are not going to jeopardize that by, you
know, you know, cutting corners. So, we're going to do it we're going to do it right in order to ensure that the communication um within the building as well with other buildings is going to be um maintained from that new um system. And that's also into the classes. So, the staff has access then to the main
offices. And then and then also since this building was first built um the students are in rooms that I don't think administration had really anticipated back then. So there are rooms where there's no communication. So in the case
of emergency you know students in that room we need to be able to to get to them. So are the speakers going to be on the outside of the building as well with that Michel? Yes. Yes. That's my thought. Thank you. Any other questions from the board? No. Well, welcome Mr.
Gford and seeing none, we can go on. It says thank you for everything. We can go on to the next presentation. Very short presentation. I'm going to just for you, Dr. Jerardano, I am going to go lightning speed. No, I won't because Oh, should we have that? Tonight's
presentation is accumulation of a year's worth of work, not only for those um sitting seated at this table, but individuals across this district. I am excited. I am pleased to announce the final strategic plan for the 25 through
2030 school year. Before we begin, I know certainly those who are at home uh are questioning what exactly is a strategic plan? Well, quite simply, it is our blueprint of um what we're going to be doing for the next 5 years. It's exactly our process,
our goals. What do we find important? What do we believe is valuable? and how are we going to achieve that to ensure the continued success of our students and staff. A key thing I also want to point out about our strategic plan is it is a living document. So certainly what we
have on paper right now may be evolved at the end of next school year because we want to ensure that what we thought would happen in April of 24 rather is to continue what we need in perhaps April 26. Um the entire um strategic plan is
going to be emailed to the entire school community tomorrow. But what I'm going to provide right now is a a basic overview of what's included in there. Um certainly when we talk at the global level, we looked at developing a mission statement which really articulates our core purpose as a school district where
we tal we talked about our values. What are our beliefs and principles that shape our culture, shapes our behavior and priorities as a school community. We also developed about four goals that provide us direction and which allows us to be evaluated and you looked upon if
whether we achieve those goals. Each goal also has a set of vision statements as well as objectives and certainly most importantly action steps because certainly goals are wonderful to have on paper but we want them to come to re reality. Um, just to let you know who
does this plan represent. Um, you know, it's really interesting. People don't recognize how large our school community is. You know, certainly at the macro level, people do know we have six building, four elementary, one middle, and one high school. And that, but people don't recognize we have a little
over a thousand employees who work for the school district. Um, Mount Olive as a town covers about 32 square uh miles. So, it is um rather large school community. And right now we are hovering a little over 48,000 stu um st 48,000
4,800 students. And what's really so wonderful about our school district is how completely diverse we are. If you look at our race and ethnicity breakdown, we have um you know a number of people coming from all different walks of life. Um we have um students
who um come from a white background, Hispanic, Asian, black, African-American um um multi- um you know background as well as um Native Americans. So we are representing a very rich diverse community here. Um of those um students
about 5% are um English language learners and I think I pointed this out in an earlier meeting that has um almost doubled in the past couple of years. So while 5% may look low, it is certainly on a growing trend as you can also see from our budgetary needs. Um we have 47
languages that are spoken across this district which is incredible. Um just to let you know the top six um English being number one um followed by Spanish, Tamil, um Talugu, Gujarati and Arabic. So certainly we are global from you know
from ocean to ocean as we like to say it. um as I shared during our um special education presentation um about I believe it was last meeting we have about 18% of our population who have an IEP as well as about 23% of our students are qualified as economically um
disadvantaged. So when you look at it this plan is representing a very diverse group of students um and community members across Mount Olive. Um just to let you know how did we get there? This process started back last March um which we engaged in a stakeholders meeting in
which we invited the public to attend to really engage to understand what this process is going to entail. From there we um actually solicited the insight and um interest of community members across this community not only within the school community in which we invited them to sit on our core planning team
and that is where we started to really dive deep into the data and that work was really um hard work um working. So that group worked from March all the way through October, you know, looking at surveys that we committed, looking at um, you know, interviews, all these data
points in order to really understand where are we currently as a district are, but most importantly, where do we want to get to? So that took a great deal of work. Um certainly um by um October this past last earlier um 2024
we um added another group of um um individuals called the implementation team. So the core team was comprised of diverse stakeholders, parents, students, staff members, administrators, people who just lived in the community who may not directly have be parents. They were
um sat on that core committee and that's where they developed those goals and that mission statement. And what happened from there is the implementation um team picked up this past November and worked through about March to de really develop how are we going to put this into action and that's known as our action plan and um as you
know I'm sitting before you here in April of 25 sharing that finalized plan. Just to let you know um you know that people involved in this um wonderful process. Obviously a great kudos to the board of education for having the vision and involvement in
order to um understand the importance of having a strategic plan to guide us in the work that's so important with our students and staff. Um also the wonderful um administration that we do have in the district and this just looks at the central office. These are our core plan team members as I indicated
this is our diverse stakeholders. As I said, there are parents, students, administrators, um you know, um lay people from the community who are all organized working towards these five different areas of to not only identify where we currently are, but where we
also want to get to. And then the last group that really worked on the action plans were primarily administrators, but these administrators hold various roles throughout the district. So not only were they building based individuals, we also have curriculum specialists, we
also have district level employees. So we got a really wide gamut to ensure that the work that's required to be done over the next five years are um within the work that um these team people are looking to do within their roles in the community. So what exactly is our
mission statement? Our new mission state entails is in empowering our school community to succeed in a diverse dynamic world. Our really focus here is that our students are not being prepared for 13th grade. It really isn't. So, what we want want to make sure that our
students are always growing and learning and we're affording them those learning opportunities both in and outside of the classroom for them to be successful. Um, I don't want to dive too much into this. You'll get this more information in email, but those are the four different areas in which we as a
school district and strategic plan felt was important for us to focus upon. So when we talk about teaching and learning, our ultimate goal is to foster innovative learning experiences that equip students for a dynamic world by optimizing time and space while empowering both staff and students to
achieve their full potential. So certainly that is our goal to really make sure that not only where they learn but how they learn is going to be evolving with the times. Closely related to that is also wellness. So the area of community and wellness, our goal is
going to be create a safe and inclusive school community that celebrates diversity, fosters mutual respect, and promotes well-being through collaborative efforts. A key word here is collaborative. We do recognize that, you know, we're not the ones who are going to be making all the decisions and
actions. That's why not only was this process collaborative, but the work we expected to be doing moving forward is going to be done in that same fashion. from the uh leadership and governance um um um lens. Our goal is going to be cultivating a culture of transparent
leadership by ensuring clear and consistent communication and collaboration with stakeholders. So once again that key word is collaboration but also maintaining our expanded communive um um aspirations and I certain believe we started on that path with the launch of a new app the other week and I hope
everyone downloaded it. And finally, um, just a testament also to the previous presentation that was done by Miss Shonen. Obviously, finance and facilities is a career structure because it's great that we have these ideas. We also need the money and the structures in place to in order to make these
dreams come true. So, certainly from a goal perspective, what we're aiming to do is ensure a transparent, efficient, and accountable budgeting process that meets the district's growing needs. And it goes back to that key word there is growing. We are very fortunate that unlike a lot of communities around us
and which has declining enrollment, we do not have that problem. Um but certainly as a growing community, we have to do um what to do with um not as much money in some cases as we saw with state funding. So as you know from our budget, we are trying to be creative, but certainly going back to making sure
whatever our actions are, they're done in a transparent manner. So what I would like to leave the public and the board with that certainly this is not the end of a journey. This is the beginning in which we're going to be working together to show our children that dreams their dreams potential and
their success are our highest priority. So once again, I would like to thank the board for their leadership and their attention to making sure that this plan was priority and also thank you for the rest of the community for their involvement and I do expect that you know um we are having a superintendent
spotlight on the 14th of May which is a Wednesday in which we're going to be going over this plan in detail. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone from the board have any questions or comments? No. All right. We are going to finish
out section five and then move back up to the approval of our minutes and then continue from there for the order of the meeting. With that, do we have any board uh subcommittee and parent teacher association liaison reports? Um I'll take any parent associations. The mic is
open. Hi Amy. [Music] Hi John. Hello. Feel like I'm super close this time. there. I'm like, "Wow." Hi, everyone. Um, I'm Amy Marini. Um, we're good. You're good. All right. Um, I'm one of
the co-leaders for the special education parent advisory group. I know I say it every time, but I figured just to make sure that those that are watching on YouTube, that might be the first time. We um are a district um collaborative um or parentled organization that's
code-driven by the Special Education Code of New Jersey. Um my promise my my list is short this time. I haven't I did get some feedback and I will be guys sending you guys um some of the links from SEAK um when I get the next set of
links and I'll try to include the last two sets as well. So that way you guys can see the links that come out. A lot of them are the special education broadcasts that come out um as well as some of the different things that I rambled on about last time. So, um, we
did have our last meeting on April 8th. Um, we it was a, um, a co- co-led, um, group, if you would, where the I've asked the district to bring, um, some of their to highlight different things within the district's special special
like special services. And so they um uh they we discussed like ESY dates and we discussed um some you know some basic stuff that we've talked about in the past but um they actually had Michelle Lockwood from formerly known as New Jersey Coalition for Inclusive
Education. Now it's known as AllIn. And so she talked about um just their what they do, how they function within the district and all of the different aspects of inclusive education and what that looks like. Um and then also we had
really great conversation that um we I point to you Dr. Bia because we had conversation at President's Council um about how some of the PTAs could be more inclusive in their practices. And so I brought that to all in and asked if they
had resources for the parent groups to be able to help them navigate how they could create more inclusive settings for some of their their schoolwide um like activities and stuff like that. Um we
also talked about the future fair Dr. Bangi as superintendent spotlight. Um the Mount Olive um cares fairs on April 30th. Um we I have collaborated with multiple um CPAGs across the state. Um and I will be
sending out shortly. There's a presentation that we collaborated with on May 8th um from an advocate. Her name is Mary Beth Gillian um on becoming your child's best advocate and IEP tips for parents throughout the school year. Um
and then our meeting um which is a parent only meeting is on May 13th. Um, and we actually were able to get the, um, special education attorney that we were supposed to have back in March to come, uh, Lily Caparosa, and she'll be reviewing the rights and protections of
students with disabilities. And then we discussed the climate survey and encouraged everybody to complete it. And that was the end of the meeting. Have any questions? Do we have any questions from the board? No, we're good. Thank you. All right. Thanks. Thank you. Thank
you, Amy. Do we have any other reports? Any from the from the board? Any? No. Okay. We will move on then. I'm sorry. Just moving back up. Um I have nothing for president's
report. With that, we'll move back up to the approval of our minutes. Um Miss uh Benton will take a motion for the approval of the minutes 2.1 2.2. I'd like to make a motion to approve the
minutes 2.1 to 2.2. Second. Any questions or comments? No. Seeing none, we'll take a roll call. Mrs. Fenton, yes. Dr. Geodano, yes. Mrs. Aquino, abstain on both. Mrs. Faggera, yes. Mrs. Melendez,
abstain. Mrs. Mrs. Narcissis, yes. Mrs. O'Neal, yes. Mr. Orizillo, yes. And we'll proceed with the order of the meeting into confidential session. We'll
take a motion for confidential session. So moved. Second. And any questions? And be it resolved that the board meet in confidential session for the purpose of discussing um negotiations, personnel, matters of attorney, client privilege, pending litigation, confidential paper
matters, we have both ways, real estate matters, and be a further resolve that the matters discussed in confidential session be disclosed to the public when the reason for confidentiality no longer exist. Action may be taken. We are now in close session and when we return,
we'll move on to item six. to to session and we'll take a roll call. Mrs. Aquino here. Mrs. Fenton here. Mrs. Faggera here. Dr. Gordano here. Mrs. Melendez here. Mrs. Narcissis here. Mrs. O'Neal here. Mr. Rosillo
here. All right, we are going to move over to public comments on action items. member of the community may comment on any action item prior to board discussion. Please state your name and address for the record. All comments must be respectfully presented. Abusive
or obscene comments will not be tolerated. And the mic is open. This is on action items. Do we have like a ding? All right. Seeing none, we will close that out and we are going to go and make a little bit of a different
move. We are actually going to go for a motion for consent agenda to approve items 7.1 all the way through. I'm scrolling down. Scrolling down to 11.3.
Second. The motion. Do we have a mo I need an initial motion? Dr. I second it. Then at the recommendation of the superintendent, we are going to take a the motion from Dr.
Gordano to move at uh action items 7.1 all the way down to 11.3 and Miss Fenton made a second. Do members of the board have any questions or comments on any of the items listed on our agenda from seven all the way
down to section 11? No. Okay. Nope. None from me. None from anyone else. All right. We'll take a roll call. Miss Shonen for all of the items. Dr. Gordano. Yes. Mrs. Fenton. Yes. Mrs.
Aquino. Yes. Mrs. Faggera? Yes. Mrs. Melendez? Yes. Mrs. Narcissis? Yes. Mrs. O'Neal? abstain from anything that has to do with Christian Humphrey and yes to everything else. Mr. Orzillo. Yes.
All right. And with that, we are going to open the mic back up to public comments. Students, parents, employees, and community members may comment on any item of interest pertaining to the Mount Olive School District. Please state your name and address for the record. All comments must be respectfully presented.
Abuse of obscene comments will not be tolerated and the mic is open and this is as it relates to Mount Olive Township Board of Ed. All right. Again, we have nobody for public comment. Okay. We will move on to old business. Members of the board may comment on any item or topic that was
previously discussed. And do we have anyone for old business? Nope. Okay. Anyone for new business? Members of the board may introduce any new item or topic of dis for discussion for the board to
consider. All right. None. And moving along, we are moving to board and administrative comments. Members of the board may comment on any item of interest pertaining to the Mount Olive School District. And we'll start at the other end there. Um Dr. Gordano. No comments, Madam President.
And Miss Melendez. No comments. And Miss Aquina, I do have one only because Mr. Bosch came in here earlier to remind us and none of us did that. So, middle school play uh Lion King Jr. is coming next week. I think Thursday,
Friday, Saturday, correct? Yep. Thank you. That's all. And Miss Benton, no comments. All right. I have no comment but other than the go see the play. Welcome back from spring break. And Mr. Özilo. That's me. I just want to
thank Miss Shoning and her team for the budgeting and Dr. Ben. Everybody do a great job. Thanks. And we got Miss Figera. I concur. She concurs. And Mrs. O'Neal. I agree. And um we went to the uh ROC awards and
congratulations to all the cadets that won their awards and uh Chief Master Sergeant Bedell. He did a great job with them. That was it. They're so great. Uh Dr. Banja, anything? I think I'm good. All
right. Well, and with that, I will take a motion to adjourn our meeting. We have a second. All in favor? Um, we are done. Thank